Friday, August 12, 2005

Game players say Blizzard invades privacy

A number of "World of Warcraft" players are up in arms over software being used by the game's publisher to scan users' computers for hacks prohibited under its terms of service.

Many publishers of MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) contend regularly with players crafting illegal software hacks that provide some form of game play advantage, such as increased speed, awareness of monsters, or the like.

To that end, some publishers have deployed programs that can peer into players' computers in an attempt to detect the existence of such hacking software. And Blizzard Entertainment, publisher of "World of Warcraft," is one of those companies.